Re-inking.
The last step in the re-education process.
It had been a long, difficult struggle to lie my way here, to make them give me what I wanted by making them think I was giving them what they wanted. All their work to brainwash me…I'd figured, long ago, that if I could pretend it worked, they would consider me cured and stop. I'd been right, too. It had almost been too easy. I had a feeling no Alchemist who had been re-educated had been committed enough to pretend their way out. And even if they had…
This was the moment of truth. I didn't know for sure that I was immune to compulsion, and I hadn't risked practicing magic during my stay, just in case some hidden camera or observant Alchemist caught me. And now, it was all or nothing.
Adrian's cross almost burned at my throat as I went with them willingly. They strapped me to the table, my cheek turned to give the tattooist easy access to my lily. I relaxed and didn't struggle in the least - I was the picture of a cured Alchemist ready to return to work.
The needle pierced my skin, I felt the injection. Nothing happened, but maybe it would be like getting it the first time - they needed to say what they wanted me to believe.
The procedure finished, and I sat up. The one who'd injected me looked me in the eyes; I looked back.
"Our words are your words, our goals are your goals, our beliefs are your beliefs," he said. "You've come far on the path to redemption, but there is a long way to go. You have sinned against your own kind and let your soul become corrupted. You are ready to have the darkness purged."
I waited for my mind to go blank, for some urge to believe what I was being told.
I felt nothing.
"Say it," he said, a bit of confusion in his eyes.
I didn't stop loving Adrian. I didn't feel repentance for my "sins". I didn't stop hating them. My emotions didn't even flicker.
I was immune.
I was so relieved, so full of triumph, that I couldn't even pretend. I looked him right in the eye, and smiled.
They stared.
I was so free. It was over. They couldn't change me. I was grinning before I even realized my face had changed at all. Pure relief bubbled up in my chest…and I laughed.
"What…?" The other Alchemists and the one who had re-inked me exchanged confused looks.
"I did it right!" the one who'd injected me exclaimed. "I swear, I did it right!"
"Oh, you did," I said, barely managing to get my laughter under control. "But it doesn't matter. You can't touch me."
Eyes widened, gasps were inhaled. "We need to alert everyone," I heard one of them say. "The vampires have found a way to-"
"Oh, the vampires didn't do this," I said, still barely managing not to laugh. "Humans did this. I did this."
More confused glances were exchanged. I knew they must have thought that it was part of more vampire brainwashing, so I couldn't let them leave.
"I'll tell you a secret," I told them, finally pushing my laughter down but still grinning. "Something huge. Something no Alchemists know about. I might even let you tell the others."
I received no response, only more confusion. I didn't need encouragement. All the emotions I'd kept buried, all the resentment I felt towards "my kind", all my hatred for the Alchemists and frustration with this whole brainwashing program and love for Adrian and relief that they couldn't touch me welled up inside me. It was finally time to let it out. I had to let it out. And there was only one way I could do that.
I raised my hand, gave every Alchemist one last grin, and said, "Humans can do magic, too."
I summoned a fireball.
All of them jumped in shock and fear. I remembered how I'd felt when I saw Jill use her water magic at the mini-golf course, and it felt so good to inflict that same feeling on my captors now.
And I wasn't done.
I raised my other hand and summoned another fireball, still maintaining the first. I didn't care about exhaustion. I poured everything I was feeling and had felt for months into the magic. The fireballs burned blue - my first time achieving maximum heat. And it still wasn't enough. I made them bigger. When that inspired actual screams, I threw them both around the room, still keeping them burning. The fire spread in jets and curtains.
Jets. Jet Steele.
I laughed.
They ran for the door. I directed the fire in front of them, trapping them.
"You think I'll burn in hell?" I taunted, standing up. "You'll burn…right now!"
Magic filled me, and all my emotions mixed with it until I would burst. I let it out, and an inferno exploded around me, filling the room. The screams weren't just of terror now - there was pain. I watched them burn. I watched the whole damn room burn. The fire didn't hurt me.
I sent the fire outward, knowing it would burn down the whole building and every Alchemist inside, even those who were being brainwashed. All of it would be gone.
I laughed and laughed as the burning figures slowly quieted and dropped to the floor, reduced to cinders. I laughed as the fire took everything. I laughed as my energy drained away, leaving me faint, but somehow still conscious, running purely on emotion and the elation of using magic, no care for the consequences. Adrian's old devil-may-care smile flashed before my eyes, and I thought, If only he could see me now. The thought made me laugh even harder.
And as I laughed, it didn't remotely occur to me that in the end, I had lost my mind after all.